1. Field of the Invention
The advent of the internet muddied ownership of data. Assumption of the right to coopt or steal data by entities that process packets of data while it is being transmitted expanded into active placement of malware, spidering software, key loggers, Trojans, and other methods and tools to hijack data or copy data from a server or while it is being transmitted across servers. As the internet has expanded, the number of entities accessing formerly protected and privately held data has increased to the point that theft and misuse of data poses a risk to the financial system, to homeland security, to copyright and intellectual property rights, and to personal privacy.
With the advent of websites, social networks, and mobile device applications requiring users to voluntarily open gateways into their servers and devices, the ability of data thieves to penetrate and lift data from internet linked servers or networked electronic devices has expanded to such an extent that many data producers and individual users of electronic devices have begun to assume that control over their data and the retention of their rights as owners of their data is futile.
The US Congress and the US courts have not yet determined how to enforce property and privacy rights over data. The European Union is also struggling to clarify ownership and privacy issues. Indeed the issue of data theft and assertion of data ownership rights is worldwide and endemic. A few attempts have been made to address the problem, though a percentage of these are also disguised data co-optation schemes. For example, many “privacy” policies that must be endorsed before enabling users to join social networks or register on websites require users to effectively transfer ownership of data produced by or upon their own devices to the social network or website. Transactional data, if posted onto the social network or website, is often aggregated with other data and resold. Demographic data and email transactions are even more difficult to protect because theft of demographic data is so ubiquitous that identifying which entity is stealing and marketing data is increasingly difficult. Rather than a direct sale in an open market, data is often trafficked by middlemen who have aggregated it through direct theft via spyware or other means, or bought it from websites or social networks who have co-opted it and serve as middlemen or “data fences”. Even IP that would normally be subject to copyright or a continuous chain of authorship and ownership, when it is posted upon or collected by or through a website or social network, increases the difficulty of asserting ownership.
A market for personal data and other data entered into response or data collection forms exists because commercial enterprises can re-purpose and leverage the data to enable more targeted and effective advertising, more targeted and effective product development and design, and other uses aimed at increasing their market share or easing their research burdens. It has been in the interest of entities with business models built upon extraction of value from data to continue to co-opt data. Additionally, federal and local agencies involved in homeland security have an understandable interest in access to data generated by devices owned by citizens or generated through the intellectual activities of citizens if these threaten the nation or are in violation of existing laws. Current data ownership ambiguity invites abuses by these agencies. Access by law enforcement to private data must be subject to a subpoena through a judicial system that enforces constitutional protections. Further, the interests of corporations and federal, state, and local entities must be balanced against constitutional protection of both privacy and intellectual property. As will become evident in the description of the art that follows; the invention disclosed herein will enable an entity obtaining a subpoena for data to specify the scope and constraints for the data in accordance with field labels and the entries associated with them, thus serving both the Constitution and the need for homeland security.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since technology has outpaced the ability of regulatory entities to keep ahead of the curve regarding data privacy and data ownership, additional technology must be developed to enable lawmakers and regulators to have a record and a trail of data movement to be able to attribute ownership and enforce property rights. The invention disclosed herein is one approach to empowering an individual data creator to consciously indicate which of their data they want to retain as private, which of their data they want to package for sale in a data marketplace, or which of their data they want to voluntarily contribute or exchange with another entity participating in a data supply chain. It teaches an effective system and method for designating and attributing ownership of data, organizing that data, and structuring the sale and exchange of that data. It builds upon the prior art that follows and is intended to be used in tandem with other data supply chain systems and processes and to further develop the systems and methods taught in the following pending patent applications and allowed and issued patents; Ser. Nos. 13/845,015, 13/781,035, 13/749,253, 13/567,084, 13/545,891, U.S. Pat. No. 8,271,346, Ser. Nos. 13/200,073, 13/136,421, 13/135,420, 13/134,596, 12/932,798, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,510,176, 7,860,760.
As data producers have become aware of limitations to the privacy of their data and theft of data, inventors of prior art have taken three primary approaches to meliorating the problem. The first approach is encryption of data to prevent thieves from accessing or using it without additional processing. Many algorithms and methods for performing encryption and for packaging and transmitting encrypted data have evolved and there is sophisticated art for doing so. The second approach is restricting access to hard drives or other storage media through password protection and an evolving art for biometric recognition of the correct owner of a device housing a data store through mediating processes like voice recognition, fingerprints, hand gestural patterns, retinal patterns, and so forth. Many alternatives to a traditional password are evolving. The third approach is the embedding or insertion of additional content to the data store such as a poison pill to discourage a thief or to add a watermark or traceable image or code that identifies the originator of the data.